GOATMILKER – Goatmilker

RELEASE YEAR: 2025
BAND URL: https://goatmilker.bandcamp.com/album/goatmilker

From the wonderful albeit rain-soaked city of Bergen comes a strangely invigorating and energetic outfit named Goatmilker, and if for some reason their charming moniker is not enough to convince you that these chaps are fucking cool then their songs undoubtedly will.

Somewhere between raw and catchy stoner rock and progressive thrash metal is where you will encounter this intriguing act, which is to say that their cleverly crafted compositions recall bands as diverse as Black Sabbath, Voivod, and early Mastodon without sounding even remotely like any one of them. There are even vague glimmers of Kyuss of Corrosion of Conformity to the ears of this scribe, too. Anyway, it may sound pretty far out there to some of you, but the great thing is that these guys make it work and that as a result of this, they differ from other bands and actually possess a musical identity of their own. A substantial part of the riffs and especially the vocal melodies are accessible and tend to worm their way into one’s skull after the first one or two listens, but all the twists and turns contained within the colorful tunes keep things interesting and unpredictable simultaneously, which makes for a rewarding experience. It requires talent to make something that feels vaguely familiar and digestible on the one hand and then challenging and complex on the other. Goatmilker are truly on to something here.

Some passages feel superfluous and slightly meandering while the vocals occasionally come across as uneasy on the ear, but overall, the result is very satisfying, and I dig this stuff. I have yet to figure out if their cover version of Journey’s “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” is absolutely dreadful or if it contains a perverted charm of sorts. Regardless, this 8-track opus is a potent and robust slab of eclectic metal that hints at great things to come. Support this group!